Daegu Marathon

Kenya’s Peninah Arusei will carry her hopes high as she tackles the 6th edition of the Hengshui Lake International Marathon that will be held on Saturday (30) in Hengshui City, China.

The 38 year-old comes to the race with a personal best of 2:27.17 that she set in 2011 at Wien Marathon. She earned a bronze medal at the 2010 World Half Marathon Championships.

Arusei’s best marathon performance in recent three years was a second-place finish in Warsaw Marathon last year with a 2:29:21 clocking. She competed in the Yellow River Estuary International Marathon in Dongying this year and finished fifth in 2:33:10.

The fastest woman on the entry list is Ethiopia’s Tigist Memuye who has a personal best of 2:27.39 she got when she took honors at the Zheng-Kai Marathon in China.

Another Ethiopian hoping for a podium finish is Tizita Terecha who has a PB of 2:28.02 that she got at the 2015 Guangzhou Marathon. This year she managed to get 2:36.31 at the Vienna Marathon when she finished in position eight.

Other title contenders on the start list are Kenyans Nancy Koech who a PB of 2:29.30 that she go at this year’s Daegu Marathon where she finished fourth and Betty Lempus who have PB’s of 2:29.31 that she got at the Enschede marathon in Netherlands.

Kenya’s Stephen Chemlany will be looking for honors at the 37th edition of the Beijing Marathon that will be held on Sunday (170 in Beijing, China.

The 35 year-old comes to this race with a PB of 2:06.24 that he got in 2014 at the Seoul International Marathon.Chemlany who holds a master’s degree in computer science from Iona College will battle for glory with the defending champion Gebre Mekuant Ayenew from Ethiopia who comes to the race with a PB of 2:09.00 that he got at this years at the Prague Marathon.

Ayenew will be joined on the starting line by his fellow country-mate Girmay Birhanu, who in Beijing in 2014 hit the front with 500m remaining before winning in 2:10:42, his first victory since debuting at the marathon in 2012.

The 30-year-old Birhanu has a PB of 2:05:49 from the 2014 Dubai Marathon and took the honours in Daegu and Ottawa Marathon both in 2015.

Fellow Ethiopian Bazu Worku, winner of the Houston Marathon in 2014 and 2013, owns the fastest PB of the field. The 27-year-old clocked 2:05:25 when finishing third in Berlin in 2010 and is a consistent sub-2:10 performer.

Worku was below par in 2016 with a season’s best of just 2:15:08, but he has bounced back this year with a 2:08:48 performance in Prague, where he finished second, one place ahead of Ayenew. It also makes him the fastest runner in 2017 on the entry list.

With a PB of 2:05:58 set in 2015 when finishing second at the Eindhoven Marathon, Ethiopia’s Deribe Robi is another candidate to threaten the course record on Sunday. Since setting his PB, however, his fastest clocking was 2:10:55 from finishing seventh in Vienna in April.

Another Kenyan on the elite start-list is Nickson Kurgat, 29, who is a two-time winner at the Chuncheon International Marathon comes with PB of 2:07:11.

Kenya’s Julius Chepkwony Rotich will defend his Venice Marathon title on Sunday (23).

Rotich clocked 2:11:08 last year finishing ahead of compatriots Robert Ndiwa and Emmanuel Sikuku.

Rotich leads the field with a personal best of 2:09:00 set in Daegu in 2014 and clocked another sub-2:10 time in Eindhoven four years ago.

Rotich is aiming to be the third runner to win back to back as the only other runners who have managed back-to-back victories in the Venice Marathon were Italian Salvatore Bettiol in 1986 and 1987 and Kipkorir Kosgei in 2006 and 2007.

Another Kenyan runner who has been on this course is Titus Masai, who finished runner-up in his debut over the marathon distance in Venice in 2012 in very difficult weather conditions where he battled heavy rain and wind.

Masai holds a solid half-marathon personal best of 59:41 set at the Rome Ostia race in 2014 and a marathon best time of 2:11:16 set in Turin in 2014.

More Kenyans to battle for the honors are, Francis Maina Ngare, who was a 2:11:42 PB from 2014, and Richard Kiprono Bett, whose 2:12:04 lifetime best came in Zurich in 2014.

The Ethiopian challenge will be led by Chala Adugna, who clocked a lifetime best of 2:09:42 in Hannover last year.

Italian interest will focus on Abdoullah Bamoussa who competed in the 3000m steeplechase at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and will make his marathon debut. He clocked a steeplechase lifetime best of 8:32.54 at the European Championships in July.

Some prominent sport names like Ivan Basso, twice winner of the Giro d’Italia bicyle race, and former Italian rugby team star Mauro Bergamasco, are expected to run their first marathon in Venice on Sunday.

The participants for this year’s race are estimated to be 6000 runners from 90 countries.

Kenya’s Priscah Jeptoo and Ethiopian Meselech Melkamu will battle out on 16th October at the TCS Amsterdam Marathon.

Though both Jeptoo and Melkamu have both run under 2:21.09, Jeptoo is the favorite to win this race considering her recent wins in London, Paris and New York.

Her trophy cabinet also holds a silver Olympic medal. In 2012, she ran a strong race and the Kenya missed out on the Olympic title by just five seconds. After these extremely successful years, she struggled with injuries, having broken her leg during the 2014 London marathon.

“I have been training hard and I am feeling really fit”, she says. “I am really looking forward to Amsterdam and will be delighted if I can run it in 2.22”.

Melkamu has had an impressive career on the roads and in cross-country events. The Ethiopian has won five bronze medals at the cross-country World Championships. She set an African record time of 29:53.83 in 10,000m in 2009.

She also came second in the same year in Berlin during the World Championships. In 2012, she changed disciplines to the marathon. During her debut, she won in France with a time of 2.21.01. Victories in Daegu and Hamburg followed soon after. The latter was her most recent victory, in April with a time of 2.21.54. In January, she was also third in Dubai with 2.22.29.

Others in the race are Ethiopian Abebech Afework, who clocked 2:23:33 in Dubai last year and Kenyan Lucy Karimi, who won the Prague Marathon in May in 2:24:46.